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BOOK REVIEW

Roughnecks, Drillers, andToolpushers: Thirty-ThreeYears in the Oil FieldRoughnecks, Drillers, and Toolpushers:Thirty-Three Years in the Oil Field. ByGerald Lynch; University of Texas Press;hardcover $10.95.My grandpa was a colorful old wildcatter.He had been a roughneck, fought inthree wars, lived with the Indians, ran forthe House of Representatives, earned a lawdegree, and ended up as a wildcatter andpresident of his own company. Grandpadid not understand fractions. He thought1/16 was a greater amount than 1/8. Nowthat might have been a handicap to someold wildcatters, but not Grandpa. You see,Grandpa was a populist. He ran for theOklahoma House of Representatives as apopulist, and as a populist he always tried tosee that the working man and the little guygot a fair shake. Therefore, when Grandpawas negotiating for a lease or raising moneyto drill a well, he always demanded that theother participants in the well got the largerpercentage. He would be adamant.Grandpa would take a measly 1/2 or 1/4,and give everyone else 1/8ths, 1/16ths, orbetter. I don't think he ever realized whata heck of a negotiator he was.Roughnecks, Drillers, and Toolpusherstells the story of the oil patch from theauthor's experience. It is an honest,straightforward account of the men whoactually brought in the wells. LikeGrandpa, oil field workers were, and are, anindependent lot. Many came from farmsand small towns and took up roughneckingbecause of the attractive pay. The goodmoney and independent spirits of the menin the oil patch combined to give them thereputation of being wild folks-oil fieldtrash. They were independent to the pointof cussedness, free to move from rig to rig.They weren't given much slack in theirwork, but then they didn't take a lot of gufffrom the boss. Many would work on a joband finish, quit or get fired, get paid, gobroke, then return to work. While Lynchportrays himself as a steady hand, he relatesa few stories about the orneriness of some of

the hands. Like the one about the roughneckwho accidentally dropped a largehammer down a well bore. The driller wasmad as hell, but being short-handed, didn'tfire the man. They fished down the well forsix or seven days before the hammer wasfinally brought up. The driller grabbed thehammer and confronted the roughneckwho had caused him all his grief. He tookthe sledge, shoved it into the roughnecks'sstomach, and sarcastically asked, "Hereyouwant this?" The roughneck, being anordinary independent cuss, said "No,"grabbed the hammer, pitched it back intothe well bore, got in his car, and left.Gerald Lynch worked in the oil fieldsfrom 1925 to 1958. He began as a roughneckand ended his career as a tool pusher.In those 33 years, Lynch travelled fromwell to well, boom to boom, and lived thelife of an oil field hand. He generally likedhis work and was always looking for ways todo things better or easier. Thus his bookgoes into some detail about the workings ofan oil rig, improvements that were madeover the years, and the contributions hemade to the operation of drilling rigs.Those years were one long boom. Afield might play out in a particular area, butanother would open up somewhere else. Ifyou look at a map of the era that showscommodity and resource productionaround the world, you'll see a ball of redcentered in Texas and covering large portionsof New Mexico, Oklahoma andLouisiana. That mass of color shows that atthe time, Texas was the center of theworld's greatest oil producing region. Italso shows how a single industry can dominatean entire region and color its cultureas well as its economy. While the industrygrew steadily, the roughneck adapted to itsfits and starts as fields played out and othersopened up. Throughout the period ofLynch's narrative, there was always anotherboom, and roughnecks moved fromboom to boom as the industry expandedand technology changed. But over it all wasthe spectre of the work finally drying up.By the late 1950s, as Lynch was windingdown his career, huge fields were openingup overseas, and the oil companies werespending their exploration and drillingbudgets on areas like the Middle East. The

era that he had lived and written aboutcame to a close. It had produced not onlythe world's major oil supplies, but a regionalculture that Lynch has ably documentedin his book.Review by Tim E. SorrellsSinging Cowboys and AllThat Jazz: A Short History ofPopular Music in OklahomaSinging Cowboys and All That Jazz: A ShortHistory of Popular Music in Oklahoma. ByWilliam W. Savage; University of OklahomaPress, Norman 73019; illustrated byRebecca Bateman; 185 pages; paperback.Who is Elliot Charles Adnopoz? OrRobert Allen Zimmerman? What was thefirst recording of an electric guitar? And bywhom? Who was the first band to back upHank Williams? Who is John Hartford'sfavorite banjo player? If you don't know butwant to find out, read Singing Cowboys! It isfull of good tidbits.One of the things attempted in thisbook is to place music within the cultureand society that produced it. This is mostclearly done in chapter one, "Culture For ASong: Oklahoma's Musical Environment";chapter two, "Black Music, White Music,One Music"; chapter three, "OklahomaCity and the Blue Devils"; and chapter six,"Woody and the World". We can see thediverse influences and energy that producedOklahoma music. Savage does apretty good job with this.He also makes the excellent point thathistories of Oklahoma, especially as taughtin the public schools, make no mention ofthe contributions of Oklahomans toAmerican popular culture in general. Noone is taught about the Oklahoma BlueDevils and their influence on jazz. Whatabout Gene Autry, Charlie Christian,Barney Kessel, Count Basie, WoodyGuthrie, Chet Baker, Earl Bostic, and PattiPage for starters?